The Disadvantages of Market Orientation

by Lisa McQuerrey, Demand Media

Fully understanding a market involves research into consumer behavior and perceptions.

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Marketing orientation is the act of a company taking strategic steps to understand the specific wants and needs of its customers and to tailor its products, services and corporate image toward matching those customer-focused ideologies. While a well-researched and implemented approach to market orientation can help a company gain a stronghold on its target market and strengthen its brand identity, there are several instances where a company's approach to market orientation can hurt, rather than help, its mission.

Risk of Underestimating the Market

A successful approach to market orientation involves a systematic approach to researching customer behavior. Missing the mark in this process creates a system where a company is using ineffective data in its approach to reaching out to customers. Working with wrong data is often worse than working with no data at all. In short, a company that is very small, lacks research resources, or has high segmentation between its departments is at a disadvantage when it comes to establishing market orientation.

Risk of Underestimating the Customer

A global marketplace has increased competitiveness across all consumer brands. The Internet has created a system whereby consumers can easily comparison shop, read peer reviews and access consumer reports at the click of the button. To effectively market to this new, highly informed consumer, an approach to market orientation must be flexible and must be quickly altered to meet the ever-changing thought processes and demands of today's savvy shopper. Companies that have established an approach to market orientation but fail to update it as needed run the risk of alienating their customers.

Challenges of Quickly Responding to Market Changes

Markets that rapidly change have just as great an impact on a company's market orientation strategy as educated consumers. New players entering or exiting the market, advances to existing products and an ever-changing cost of raw materials, products and services all impact market orientation. Following an established market orientation and failing to take new external factors into consideration can put a company at a disadvantage.

Dealing with Corporate Perceptions

Understanding what the customer wants and needs is not enough to guarantee a market share in today's economic environment. Branding and corporate perception has grown to be just as important in the minds of consumers as price and quality. Building a marketing orientation concept around price and service alone puts a company at a disadvantage. All factors related to corporate perception must be calculated to ensure a solid, functioning and effective approach to market orientation.

About the Author

Lisa McQuerrey has been a business writer since 1987. In 1994, she launched a full-service marketing and communications firm. McQuerrey's work has garnered awards from the U.S. Small Business Administration, the International Association of Business Communicators and the Associated Press. She is also the author of several nonfiction trade publications, and, in 2012, had her first young-adult novel published by Glass Page Books.

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